Choose My Adventure: We, the drowned

By now you're more than aware that Massively, WoW Insider, and Joystiq are not long for this world. Thanks to the type of organizational reshuffling we've so often covered on these very pages, AOL's enthusiast blogs have eaten the sharper end of an axe. We're upset. You're upset. But the core reality is that sometimes bad things happen. All we can do is pick ourselves up, steady our breathing, and leap into the void.

I've been with Massively since 2011. I started as a streamer, evolved into a news/features writer, and finished as the steward of Choose My Adventure. Every moment has been a privilege. Every day exciting.

And it's you I have to thank.

Community, community, community

Words unheard are without purpose. Text on a page doesn't earn its value, doesn't mature, doesn't bloom, until it has been read. No one is more aware of this than the Massively team. We love our readers. We're proud of the community that's grown here. Day in and day out you folks have added to the conversation, caught us in our mistakes, and helped us make the site a truly unique place to hang out and talk about MMOs (and that's-not-an-MMOs).

Choose My Adventure was a manifestation of our love for the community. It was a shared experience between Massively and readers, joining the hands of one writer and a bunch of internet strangers -- your decisions made real through my keystrokes. Sometimes it was hard. Sometimes the games were less than perfect or less than good or less than interesting. But the core hitch, the beating heart, was the idea that you and I were doing this together. I can't even begin to tell you how much it has meant to me.

Like CMA, Massively as a whole was built by its readers. It was fueled by the passions of a million MMO fans. And no corporate brush-clearing can cleave those passions from us or you. Read: AOL might own our servers, but it doesn't own us, our readers, or our shared joys. These we clutch to our heart and defend spitting.

The future

I don't know where things go from here. Some of us might be off to games studios or other publications. Others might try to forge a new MMO site built on the Massively spirit if not the Massively name. What I do know is that times like this tempt us to get ugly. To point fingers, to shake fists, to hurl spite. I'm asking you to let it go. I'm asking you to remember what has made the Massively community so unique, so welcoming, so strong.

We didn't build this incredible community by shouting each other down, celebrating the failures of others, or being vile. We built it by being civil, honest, and compassionate. The Massively team is one with immense talent; these people will land on their feet. I will land on my feet. We welcome your support and we relish your well-wishing, but one vitriolic tweet in any direction on our behalf is too many. If we have to sink the Massively yacht, we do so with our principles intact. We stand on the bow as the ship plunges into the waves, astonished with all we've accomplished and proud of every single word we've written. We don't curse the sea for being the sea.

So let us celebrate our achievements. Let us revel in our memories. And when we see each other again, let us embrace as old friends.

Mike Foster put you in the driving seat of Choose My Adventure, the Massively column in which you made the rules, called the shots, and took the blame. Thanks for stopping by every Wednesday to help Mike as he explored the ins and outs of games big and small and saw what happened when one man tried to take on a world of online games armed only with a solar keyboard and the power of spellcheck. Follow him on Twitter!